


Where the Crossroads Meet

by Inkribbon796



Series: Masks and Maladies [76]
Category: Jacksepticeye Fandom, Markiplier fandom - Fandom, Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Anti makes a new friend by trying to claw his face open, Chase Needs a Hug, Demonic Possession, M/M, Magic, Remus is a shameless flirt, Robbing banks, The Anomaly - Freeform, Virgil needs a hug, Virgil’s intense fear of fire, Wil kills people, Wilford is a shameless flirt, doing crimes, fear powers, pre-divorce Chase, reality warping boxes, superhero au, two boys with anger-prone boyfriends get up to some hijinks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:54:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24686455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkribbon796/pseuds/Inkribbon796
Summary: In a locked vault is a powerful magical artifact. It has the ability to tear cities apart, to alter reality, and reform a new city in the old one’s place. Which is exactly why Remus, Wilford, and Anti find it.
Relationships: Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders, darkstache
Series: Masks and Maladies [76]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538131
Comments: 12
Kudos: 42





	1. Distortion

**Author's Note:**

> This is (give or take) the 100th short I’ve made and I wanted it to be a little special. It’s also way longer than I planned for it to be.
> 
> First chapter’s a little odd in that events are happening at the same time. Remus, Wilford, and Anti are all doing things at the simultaneously and when we get back to Remus, that’s a new set of events.

~::~ Twenty Years Earlier ~::~

In a locked bank vault in Gainesville, Florida a ripple in reality ripped its way through time and space and a box glitched itself all over the room until it rested in the center.

Right as it glitched into reality, an alarm rang out throughout the bank as reality slowly began ripping itself into pieces. The bank split itself into three different places, the same bank with a different staff servicing it.

In Florida, a group of three masked vigilantes were standing on top of a neighboring building, watching the chaos as the police were driving up.

“Hey, Specs,” Creativity, Roman, the hero in a red cape and a white mask with red and golden accents with large red feathers, “how much longer we gonna be standing here like glittery gargoyles? We’ve got people to save.”

“Patience,” Logic, Logan, the vigilante with a full face mask and visor, commented, “this isn’t a situation we can rush into.”

“This is so exciting,” Morality, Patton, the hero in a puppy mask and a light blue jumpsuit. Creativity brought them down to the police.

“We’ve arrived!” Roman announced in a sing-song voice.

“We were nearby, would you like us in a supportive or non-present capacity?” Logan asked. Roman frowned at him but didn’t argue his opinion.

“Normally we’d take you up on that,” one of the officers answered, “but the Duke texted eggplants and bank emojis at the police chief.”

“That scoundrel!” Roman responded. “Does he have no shame? He brings misfortune and shame on his entire family!”

Logan was just staring at him during the outburst, then turned back to the officer, “Is the Duke the only one causing the situation?”

“I was expressing my intense displeasure with the Duke,” Roman reminded.

“Yes, but there are more pressing matters,” Logan corrected sternly. “You can bring your grievances to the Duke if you are so insulted.”

“You don’t understand, his existence besmirches my art,” Roman proclaimed.

Logan rolled his eyes, already thinking of entry strategies.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Inside of a nearly identical bank in the city of Egoton, Wilford was sitting at the branch manager’s desk, feet propped up as he was filing his nails. The desk phone rang and Wilford answered it.

“Bank offices, handsome man speaking,” Wilford answered smugly.

_“Wil,”_ Dark seethed. _“Why?”_

Wil pined the landline between his shoulder and ear, continuing to trim and groom his nails. “Ahh, Darkling, I’m a bit busy at the moment. Can you believe the service at this place is terrible.”

The phone crackled with Dark’s static, a clear indicator at how furious he was that he could affect the phone with that distance. _“Wilford M. Warfstache, you are robbing a bank, of course the service would be terrible. Why are you robbing a bank?”_

“Eh,” Wil shrugged, blowing dust off his nails. “Figured I’d check it off the ol’ bucket list, you know?”

There was a bit of silence, the sound of wood snapping crackled over the line, _“If you don’t find something to make this mess worth my while you can bail yourself out this time, you hapless fool!”_

The line cut off suddenly and Wil frowned at the phone. “Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”

He stood up and carefully walked over the branch manager, who Wil had helped take a nap. The man had looked so tired and so he and the rest of his staff was already taking a nap, Wil doing his best not to wake them up.

Wil had something worth Dark’s while to find. While Wil appreciated Dark when he was feisty, hell hath no fury like Dark scorned in Wil’s humble opinion and best to mitigate _that_ at all costs.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“Get back here!” Marvin shouted, throwing magic down the bank’s hall at Anti who was jumping from wall to wall, cackling like a madman.

“Maybe yeh should get glasses ta help yeh aim better, kitty cat,” Anti teased.

Chase was shooting one of his modified NERF pistols. So far he was the only one managing to hit Anti. J.J was frantically trying to keep up, they’d been fighting Anti in the bank for almost a half-an-hour now with J.J having to rewind them back to the start of the fight twice. He was tired, and tripped over something on the ground.

Winded, J.J just lay there for a couple seconds, looking back towards his feet to see a body lying there . . . with a bullet wound right through her heart, the expression on her face twisted in fear.

J.J froze in horror and shock, usually someone called ahead when they found someone Anti had killed. The mute was about to use his communicator to send a signal, but he blinked and the body was suddenly gone.

As if the woman had never even been there.

Desperately, J.J patted the ground where the body had been, but his hand met linoleum and empty air.

“Jay?” Jackie dashed in. “There you are, you okay?”

The mute hero heaved himself onto his knees, frantic moving his hands while he asked if Jackie had found any bodies.

“No, J.J, we cleared the bank this time, remember? Are yah tired? Yeh need me ta call Hein in?” Jackie’s voice was instantly concerned. “Where’d yah find them?”

J.J stood up, _“After the battle, we need to win.”_

Jackie looked worried and uncertain, the speedster picked J.J up and they ran over to try and catch up with the fight.

Jackie’s tinnitus was flaring up, he couldn’t tell if it was Anti or the adrenaline. Overhead the loudspeakers were silently shaking, as if something loud was playing over them but now sound came out.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

In the surveillance room of the bank, Virgil was loudly singing _Bad Romance_ at the top of his lungs. He had the music blaring over the loudspeakers, much to Janus’s dismay, but the deceitful Side had been outvoted two-to-one so Virgil kept his playlist privileges.

“I want your love, and I want your revenge! You and me could write a bad romance!” Virgil shouted, dancing with the song, not caring if he was out of key because no one was listening and the guard that had been in the room had been knocked out by Virgil’s fear powers a while ago. They’d taken the building without a fight, and without Virgil even lifting a finger.

“Oh~ oh~ oh~ oh~ oh!” Virgil shouted before hitting the blinking red light on the intercom, bringing the music down a bit. “Eh-lo?”

_“Perfectly on key, Virge, don’t change a thing,”_ Janus told him sarcastically.

“Eh, why don’t you fuck off Janny, I’m having fun,” Virgil told him off.

Janus chuckled, his tone more relaxed, _“I certainly wouldn’t know anything about that, just kick back.”_

“Got it, got it, _Mom_ ,” Virgil smiled, rolling his eyes and flipping through the cameras. He looked at the back entrance and sat up. “We’ve got Helicopter Dad, and the Drama of the Opera at the back.”

_“Thank you,”_ Janus told him. Then there was a heavy crash that seemed to shake the whole building. When the deceitful Side spoke again his tone was firm. _“We’ll be out in five anyways.”_

“Cool, got time to finish my song? Sweet!” Virgil grinned.

_“Just be ready,”_ Janus warned and hung up.

Virgil began turning up the music again, because of the volume he missed the vent sliding open. “Hm~ hm~ hm~ hm~ Want your bad romance!”

Logic was carefully climbing down from the ceiling, braced for a fight but when he took in the full volume of the music and Virgil dancing he just stood there and sighed. The logical Side waited for Virgil to notice him but when that didn’t happen, he just shut the music off remotely and Virgil startled.

“You apply yourself so poorly,” Logan chastised. “I shudder to think what would happen if you were competent in your ventures.”

“Hey!” Virgil glared at him, nervous at one of the Light Sides, especially an objective one — or at least one that wasn’t _Princey_ — seeing his singing and dancing. “How long have you been there?”

“Long enough to know that you should work on some decent pitch control,” Logan critiqued. “I advise a voice coach when you get to prison.”

“You’re one to talk, Mr. Roboto,” Virgil jabbed back and started to work his fear powers.

The logical Side had to readjust his footing, but was clearly regaining his composure. Virgil grabbed his MP3 player and his bag and bolted for the door, trying to put as much distance between him and Logan as possible, throwing the door open and racing to where he knew Deceit and the Duke were.

In the background, he could hear someone following him and ran as fast as he could.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Wilford rolled his shoulders as he materialized into the main vault, not bothering with that monstrosity of a door. It was far larger than he expected it to be. Wil could hear music playing. In his ears, he could hear distant, loud raucous music, the kind that Wil adored but Dark hated. He couldn’t remember putting music on, but he wasn’t going to complain about it.

He’d planned on looking through some boxes, but he saw in the middle of the vault a rather ornate box floating in the air, practically begging to be stolen.

“Well,” Wilford smiled, flexing his suspenders and reaching up. “Don’t mind if I do.”

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Anti used his electricity to break through the actual vault door.

“Come on, shitebag, what are yeh gonna do with money anyways?” Marvin yelled, trying his best to freeze Anti in place.

“Burn it, ‘a fookin’ course,” Anti cackled, then he frozen, whic he only did half of his own volition when he saw the box floating in the middle of the room.

“Hello?” Anti tilted his head inhumanely, his form glitching out of any hold Marvin was trying to keep him in. Marvin himself was frozen by the sight of the clearly magical artifact in front of him and confused because that thing wasn’t there the last time they were in here.

“Da fook are _you_ , sweetheart?” Anti told the box, Marvin shook his head to clear it, not wanting Anti to take the clearly magical and/or cursed box.

“I don’t fookin’ think so!” Marvin shouted as Anti darted forward to grab the box.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Virgil raced down the hall to the central vault. “Gotta go! Gotta go!”

Janus looked down the hall, “Anxiety! You were supposed to stay at your post!”

“Logic’s here!” Virgil called out. “Where’s Remus?”

The two Dark Side looked into the vault to find Remus not stuffing a bag with cash and other valuables, but he was staring at a box floating in the center of the room, as if transfixed by it.

“Duke!” Deceit called out. “Put it in the bag, time’s up!”

The Duke startled but reached up for the box, his hand touching it at the same time as two other similarly chaotic hands touched the box.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The box jolted and shuddered in their hands before reality began to slam itself together.

Three doors appeared at opposite sides of the room where each of them had entered from the vault door. Wilford, Anti, and Remus all had a hand on the box and were all staring at each other in surprise and confusion.

“Well, old chaps,” Wilford tugged the box free, the ornate box glitching three different ways, each echo of the box being tugged to either of them. “I’ll be taking that.”

“Hey, I saw it first!” Anti shouted angrily. Remus was busy looking at the walls cracking around them.

“Find your own, I need this,” Wil huffed, starting to try and open up a hole into the Void, but to his surprise he couldn’t. “Huh, that’s strange.”

“Hand me that, it’s mine!” Anti shouted.

Then the cracking and splitting began to get far louder and seemingly intentional.

All three of them stopped arguing to watch the ground beneath them and the walls above them crack and divide.

“Jan’s gonna kill me,” Remus laughed a little at the same time as Wil’s admission.

“Dark’s gonna kill me,” Wil held the box closer to his chest.

Then the ground split as Janus and Virgil appeared at the door to the vault. Before Janus could call out the world seemed to twist and bend, and everyone was pulled apart as reality collided with itself.


	2. Collision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As reality breaks down, heroes and villains meet for the first time. Dark sees another demon for the first time in decades.

Reality itself was bending and twisting, sliding apart and crashing together like it was a series of gears being forced into specific places. The earth collapsing and sliding together as people and objects were thrown about.

A river appeared in Egoton where it had never been before, and a haunted lake filled with dark, cursed magic hanging over it like a cancerous, poisoned miasma appeared in Gainesville.

Dark was working at his desk, things had calmed down a bit since he’d yelled at Wil over the phone. Once he was in prison he’d set a timer and then go and pick Wil up. But Dark was in a meeting about the network when he felt something similar to the Manor ripping it’s way through the room.

The Entity shuddered violently, feeling like the body he was in was absolutely freezing.

“Dark?” Edgar asked, the young enforcer looking at him in concern.

The shuddering didn’t pass, Dark felt wrong, that something was terribly wrong and it was about to get worse.

Standing up, Dark was already pulling up as much of his aura as he could. “Get everyone inside their warehouse! Now! Tell them to hunker down!”

Edgar flinched momentarily before him and the other captains and lieutenants Dark had been talking to, began to run out the door as quickly as they could.

Dark was already trying to open up a portal into the Void but it wasn’t letting him access it so he pushed himself through the crowd. “Move!”

Quickly getting outside, Dark spread his aura as far as he could and grabbed all thirteen of the warehouses, pushing anyone who was outside inside. The ground was spilling and shaking, warping as buildings crashed into other buildings that appeared out of thin air and then disappeared as the ground was spilling apart.

“Dark!” Silver flew over, looking around. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, you’re the hero, do something about it!” Dark spat at him, he didn’t want to keep yelling at Silver. Any concentration he gave to the hero was concentration away from forcing his aura over the warehouses, and the ground was splitting under one of them so he had to hold it up over the gaping maw in the ground.

“Any chance you could do that to the rest of the city?” Silver said, clearly noticing the space Dark was covering.

“No!” Dark grunted. “Make yourself actually useful, and save my town already.”

Silver let out an audible huff, flying off, “Not your town, shitlord!”

Dark saw him doing his best to safely catch people in buildings and evacuate them so he didn’t spare Silver another thought.

Something flashed in front of him, but Dark tried to ignore it, it was a human face that was half gaunt on one side and literally scaly. The face seemed equally surprised to see him but it was gone and Dark was focusing on keeping his network physically afloat.

The Entity was frantically looking around, he was having trouble drawing all his power from the Void. His connection was getting stronger but with how much chaos was spreading through the city, it was better to drop the warehouses back on solid ground the instant he could.

Quickly observing the ground around him, Dark found out that the ground wasn’t just splitting, it was dividing as if something new was being added in. Dark followed the space his warehouses had been over, trying to keep all over them over solid ground.

After another couple minutes of his city heaving and collided with what looked like an ever changing city. But Dark was able to set the warehouses down, trying to get them in the same places as they were before, pulling his aura back as quickly as he could.

One of his newer captains ran out, Dark thought his name was  _ “Derek” _ . “Hey, boss, what’s going on?”

“Get back to work,” Dark yelled at him. “And if you find Wil, stab him  _ immediately _ .”

“Uh,” Derek looked nervous and more than a bit terrified. “Sure, boss.”

Dark took the time to relax, letting his aura seep back towards the Void where it belonged, the town was various degrees of ruined and destroyed around him but he’d deal with that after a cup of coffee and locking Wil in the Void until he figured out what was going on.

While he was relaxing on top of his main warehouse Dark felt and heard a violent and electrical-sounding tear in the Void. The Entity looked up to see a glitchy green figure fling itself out of the Void and instant look at Dark with a huge smile.

Dark stood up, trying to get as much information about what he was pretty sure that what he was looking at was a demon.

“Well, well, well,” the glitch demon was clearly sizing Dark up, even his voice glitching up. “Nice muscle show, suits. Still got any power left?”

Dark used his aura to brush off any dust on his suit, not taking his eyes off the rival demon. “I have more than enough. But you’re in my city and I’d like you to leave.”

Looking about as intimidated as if Dark had pulled a puppy out of his back pocket and thrown it at the rival demon, the glitch demon looked around for a bit before pointing to a corner of the street, “Yeh fookin’ me sideways? I pissed on that wall. That’s  _ my _ territory.”

Dark scowled at him, already deciding he hated the creature and was going to have him painfully exorcised.

“So, what’s yer name, mine’s Anti,” Anti smiled sharkishly.

“If I cared for your name I would have asked,” Dark dismissed angrily. “The only thing I’m concerned about is the time you are wasting me by breathing.”

Anti summoned a serrated knife and tapped it to his chin, “You remind me of this old fookin’ geezer I met, I can practically smell the magical rot on yah. I think I’ll call yeh Raccoon Eyes.”

“It’s Dark, you sufferable brat,” Dark snarled. “And I will decorate my territory with your blood and mount your head on a pike.”

Anti scoffed, almost laughing, which was only making Dark angrier, his form splitting and fracturing. “Right, like I’m real scared ‘a the shambling corpse who thinks his cheap guyliner is a good substitute fer the shadows ‘a eternal darkness.”

Something in Dark’s self-control just snapped and he lunged, Anti summoning a ring of knives around him as Dark gathered as much of the Void’s magic around him.

Wilford was walking down an unfamiliar street, when the world had started breaking and rearranging itself Wilford had held onto the box until he could safely store it in his part of the Void. Now all he had to do was find Dark.

Problem was: he had no idea where he was or where Dark was.

“Huh,” Wilford furrowed his mustache a little bit. “My mind must be failing me more than I thought. Dark? Dark!” 

Then Wil shrugged and pulled out his favorite revolver and just started emptying the cylinder into the air. People screamed, ducking away from him and trying to put as much distance between them and the madman with a revolver.

Wil waited for a minute for Dark to show up, and when that didn’t happen he flipped open the wheel, dropping the empty cylinder and started to reload it. “Huh, must be in a meeting.”

The madman pointed it at a crowd of people and began firing.

Jackie, who had suddenly found himself on a different street then where he’d been with J.J inside the crumbling bank, had heard gunshots and started immediately running towards the pandemonium. The instant he saw the gun firing and he immediately dashed in to move the bullets out of the way, the gun clicking uselessly.

“Yo, barbershop singlet!” Jackie called to the man as he stood in-between the shooter and the crowd. “Did ye lose yer way ta yer shop or did the other guys ‘a yer quartet leave yah hangin’?”

Wilford stared at the hero in red, tapping his bottom lip with his gun, “I’m sorry, have we met.”

“Nah,” Jackie told him, “but don’t suppose yah can stop shooting at people?”

“Well I’m only poking people to find my boyfriend, normally he shows up after the cops do,” Wil explained. “Name’s Wilford Warfstache, a pleasure to meet you.”

“Jackieboy Man,” Jackie introduced hesitantly. “So you find your boyfriend or the police, and you’ll stop shooting people?

“Oh post-haste,” Wilford promised, jumping up a little bit.

“So can we put the gun away?” Jackie asked.

“Oh this?” Wilford waved it around it a bit.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jackieboy Man tried not to seem rattled.

Wilford smiled, pocketing his gun, it disappearing into thin air to Jackie’s concern and confusion, “Okay, Darky lives on Hill Road.”

“Well we can start with the police station, it’s three blocks down the road,” Jackie offered.

The man shrugged, “Okay.”

Wilford held his arm out, “Lead the way.”

Jackie started walking with Wilford, trying to keep him distracted and non-violent. “So, buddy, where yah from?

“Egoton,” Wilford smiled. “Lived there almost my whole life.”

“Where’s that?” Jackie asked.

Wil stopped, his mustache furrowing, “I’m not sure. You know, I’ve never had problems getting back home until now. I always just find my way back to him and the House.”

“Well, we’ll get yah there soon buddy,” Jackie clapped him on the shoulder.

Wilford smiled, reminding Jack of an overgrown puppy. Then he pepped up, “Oh, I know where we are!”

Jackie, at that moment, became acutely aware that he wasn’t in Althone, he was somewhere else. “Where’s that?”

“We’re near the Oakren, Darky owns this place,” Wilford exclaimed, running up to it. “I’ll give him a call.”

Jackie started to follow him in, but froze when he heard a series of loud explosions off in the distance.

In another part of town Virgil was standing along the street, confused. Just a couple seconds ago he’d been cowering from the earthquake next to Janus and now he was in a place he’d never been before. He fought the urge to look like a five-year-old lost in a mall and waiting to get kidnapped by some stranger.

He didn’t have long to think about calling out before the ground was shot around him.

“Hey!” Virgil shouted angrily before he saw some guy in a grey hoodie holding what Virgil was fairly certain was a NERF gun. “What the?”

“We told yeh freaks not ta come back inta town!” He shouted, clearly not an American. “Or did yah have yer ears clogged with rotting flesh?”

Virgil recoiled in disgust, “Hold up, I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”

“Nah, not falling for that again,” he told him.

Whatever he said was lost on both of them when part of the building next to them exploded and something flew towards them.

Virgil yelped, flinching back and waiting to get hit.

“Anti! What the hell?”

Virgil pulled up his hood a bit to see his attacker arguing with a guy picking himself off the ground and floating in green and black glitchy static.

“Hey, Average?” The glitchy creature smiled at him. “Yer not using yer body right now, are yah?”

“Of course I am!” Average shouted, angry and clearly terrified.

The glitch demon made a disbelieving face, “Nah, I need it more. Don’t worry, I won’t give it back too badly damaged.”

“No!” Average shouted but Anti turned into static and just jumped into the guy, his eyes turned into staticky green and he turned towards the broken building as everything went grey and Virgil tried to put as much distance between him and the situation as possible

“Howdy, fooker!” Anti shouted at the Entity as he ported in, lifting up Chase’s gun. “Ready fer round two?”

Virgil was grabbed by Janus who was trying to keep Virgil behind him. “Dee, what’s going on?”

“Nothing good,” Deceit hummed. “But we might be able to come out ahead if we play this right.”

“Get out of that pathetic meat sack,” Dark shouted, throwing his aura up as a shield against the foam projectiles. “If you can’t be bothered to fight me for real, then go back to Hell.”

“ _ You _ first,” Anti forced Chase to say. “Why don’t yah step out of yer own rotting flesh sack an’ we’ll call it even. That can’t be good on the joints.”

“Just,” Dark groaned. “I just want you to die so I can get back to work, is that so hard?”

“Yes!” Anti shouted. “Yah were on my turf.”

Janus clapped, drawing attention to him and Virgil. “So which of you fine fellows do I have to thank for breaking apart space and time?”

“What are you doing?” Virgil croaked, hiding behind Janus.

“Oh that’s right, show fear in front of the demons,” Janus scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“If I wanted advice from the peanut gallery, I would have asked,” Dark growled.

“Yeah, fook off,” Anti shouted.

“What concerns me far more is that our towns have merged, and you two are fighting, spending your energy battling each other when we could be making the most of the situation. Besides, we’re looking for our compatriot and he’s attracted to chaos not rampant destruction.”

“Fookin’ brainy, ain’t yah,” Anti rolled his eyes, before looking back at Dark, “come on, 3-D Tinitus, let’s do this.”

“Quiet,” Dark scoffed, manifesting an echo to observe Janus closer as he kept his eyes on Anti. “I have too much to do today to get involved in a pointless scuffle with you.”

“Buzzkill,” Anti scoffed. “Maybe I should have grabbed the magician instead, least he can set stuff on fire.”

Dark was already trying to summon a portal to force Anti through to buy himself at least a couple minutes of peace and quiet to think of how to get himself out of this mess without being stabbed in the back.

That thought was derailed when a ripple that cut through time itself tore through the little alley they were standing in.

“Shit!” Anti spat, looking around. “Where’s that fooker?”

Deceit and Virgil looked confused, Virgil clinging a bit tighter to the other side. Dark, however, realized that there was someone nearby messing around with the time stream and he only knew of Wil who could affect those around him. He was trying to find the madman’s aura but saw no trace of it.

“Anxiety!” A voice shouted, impossibly behind Deceit and Anxiety, despite no one standing there mere seconds ago.

The two Sides turned to see Logan in his costume staring at them.

“Hey! Where’d you come from?” Anxiety spat, Dark and Anti were looking at the new addition to their group.

“Da fook are you?” Anti asked.

Logan took out a stick and he hit the end of it and it erupted into fire.

Anxiety screamed, reflexively letting out a burst of his fear waves, engulfing the area around him.

Dark flinched, more out of surprise than fear, he did get a brief glance of a body in a red robe hitting the floor with a sickening wet thud and dark soulless eyes looking at him. His twin souls roiled a bit before Dark pulled them all out of its effects, assured that he would be braced the next time it happened.

Thankfully, no one noticed Dark’s little crisis because Janus was a bit too preoccupied calming Anxiety. The wave was so strong it spooked Chase enough to wake up and panic enough that the fear pushed Anti out of his mind.

“AHHHHHH!” Chase screamed, and fell to the ground. J.J was there to catch him and with Logan’s help the two ran off with Chase.

“You!” Dark yelled at Deceit. “Control him, or I will.”

“Little fooker cost me a good host,” Anti spat, a serrated knife in his hands, knowing that by this point Chase was too unconscious and frazzled to be any use to him.

“I didn’t expect them to come out of nowhere,” Deceit shouted, casting an illusion in front of his eyes to calm him down, Anxiety was looking around wildly. “Logic is dangerous but last I saw of him he couldn’t appear out of thin air!”

“Give me five minutes an’ he’ll be plunged inta the fifth layer ‘a Hell,” Anti promised.

“You can have the techno manic, so long as I get to have a talk with his friend,” Dark dismissed.

“Oh, Jay? Sure as long as yeh don’t fook him up too bad, been wanting to see how his body ticks,” Anti agreed.

“I make no promises,” Dark warned, as Janus frantically tried to think of a way to make this better and not get Logan killed outright. The brainiac was annoying and bullheaded, but he was still a Side.


	3. Reformation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the dust settles, the heroes and villains meeting don’t necessarily go as planned. Some first meetings are peaceful, others catch the town on fire.

Silver never much liked fighting magic, too many ways for stuff to go wrong. So fighting a magician with a penchant for starting fires wasn’t how he wanted today to go.

Wade was battling the fires, but magical fire tended to act like an oil spill, so Wade was trying to smother the fires rather than blast them out of existence.

“Can’t you do something?” Wade spat.

“Only if I can hit the bastard!” Mark shouted back angrily.

“I am no such thing, you blasted cur!” The mage spat, his red and white outfit with a sparkling red cloak billowed out behind him despite their being no wind. His red and white opera mask was covered in gold glitter that caught the sun. He had an immaculate sword in his hands. “En Garde!”

Silver sighed, bringing his fists up, “Yeah, buddy, why not?”

He smiled, “A worthy adversary! At last!”

“Do you have one volume for everything?” Silver quipped.

“He does,” another unfamiliar voice, the city seemed to be full of them.

“Back off, Lo, this fight is mine,” the regal mage said.

Wade was standing at Silver’s back. “Hey, pal, we don’t need to fight.”

“Correct,” the unfamiliar voice agreed. “None of us should be fighting at all, The Prince is merely desperate for a fight after our failure at the bank.”

“Hey,”  _ “the Prince” _ complained. “No I’m not.”

“Your friend, Iblis, sent us,” Logic continued.

Silver chanced a look at the fully masked person with a visor in front of his eyes. He was in a mostly dark blue outfit.

“Princey, I insist you stop your games and help the Captain and I look for the Duke, I am certain he is one of the causes for destruction, you being one of the others,” he was looking around. “I am also about to ask a question that I want the correct answer to: who started these fires?”

“Uhhhhh,” Princey drew out, looking nervous even past his mask, pointing to Silver. “Him?”

“No I didn’t!” Silver shouted back.

“Obviously,” he said, you could practically hear the eye roll in his voice. “I fail to see how two people with super athletics, and hydrokinesis can start fires at will.”

“Well, that’s judgmental of you, and you’re better than that,” Princey told him.

“Just do us all a favor and put the fires out,” he dismissed curtly. “We’re about to have enough problems.”

“How so?” Silver asked, walking. As a man who looked like he’d stepped out of an old black-and-white vaudeville cartoon and another person in a light blue outfit and puppy dog mask were helping to carrying an unconscious hero in a mask.

“Because me and other of our soon-to-be compatriots have upset two very angry and unstable super powered humanoids, and one of them wants me dead,” he explained. “In other important information, you can call me Logic. The personification of ludicrous fairy tales over there is Prince Charming, and our companion over there is Captain Morality.”

“Which one’s which?” Wade asked, which Mark was secretly happy about because he’d been thinking the same thing but now he didn’t have to take the fall for asking it.

“Neither of these are your compatriots, are they?” Logic turned to J.J. He shook his head and Logic groaned. “Well, our chances of meeting a violent demise have raised.”

“Why?” Silver asked.

“Lo upset some demons,” Patton smiled.

“I hardly believe there is a supernatural element at play with any of this,” Logan proposed.

“That’s absolutely impossible,” Roman reminded, chuckling a bit.

“Have you met Anx?” Patton agreed.

“I don’t believe in ghosts or wacky stuff like that, and even I have to admit my city is controlled by a fucking demon,” Mark commented.

“We’ll table this for later,” Logic ordered.

Roman walking up to the unconscious man. “Is he safe to hold up?”

The mute hero nodded and Roman picked him up in his arms. “What happened?”

He made a couple signs and Logan sighed, “He says it was demon possession.

“Silver!” Wilford called out and Silver screamed.

“No!” Silver flew over and slammed into Wilford, knocking him into the nearest wall and just pinning him there. “I’ve had enough bullshit today, and I don’t want more!”

Wil had a huge smile on his face. “I’m so glad I found you, I can’t find Abe or the police and something happened to the city.”

“What did you do? You insane asshat!” Silver knew that whatever happened, Wil was somehow involved.

“I did nothing,” Wilford balked, sounding insulted. “It was that chatterbox that did it.”

“Quit deflecting, you maniac, what did you do?” Silver demanded. He could hear another conversation going on behind him.

“What the hell happened, Jay?” A voice behind him asked.

Silver felt someone tapping on his shoulder. The mono-colored hero looked back to see the mustached silent hero holding up a chalkboard.

__ _ “Leave Wil, Dark is coming and we need to be gone,” _ his whiteboard ordered.

“Oooh,” Wil said in relief to J.J, suddenly appearing out of Silver’s grip to stand next to the mute hero. “And what a dapper gent too.”

J.J just stared at him.

Wilford snapped his fingers in disappointment, “Ahh, shame, maybe some other time then.”

“Hold up a second,” Silver interrupted, “if Dark’s coming, I’m not going anywhere.”

A series of explosions rocked the city a couple blocks down and Silver turned to the source.

“Oooooh~” Wilford cheered, “that looks like a big enough problem. Darky can’t possible ignored that.”

“Can you slow yer roll there fer five seconds, pal,” Jackie told him. “We’ll find him, but there are people dying.”

Wil made a scoffing laugh, “Oh, that’s a good one, this hasn’t been going long enough for games like that.”

“This isn’t a game!” The Irish hero shouted.

“Welcome to Egoton,” Silver greeted dryly to Jackieboy Man. “He’s  _ literally _ insane.”

The explosions were getting closer.

“It’s too late already,” Logan groaned as a shrill ringing began to flood the area as color began to drain from the area.

A violent tear in reality opened up, a portal as dark as a black hole ripped and Dark stepped out. He looked around and stopped when he saw Wilford.

“There you are!” Dark spat in rage. “What did you do?”

Wilford was too happy to be angry and ran over to hug Dark. “Darky, I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

“No! No!” Dark shouted, using his aura to push Wil back and pin him in place. “You are going back to the Manor and staying there until I fix this.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Wil pouted.

“Then why is my city stapled to three other ones?” Dark shouted, gesturing to the city around him with one hand.

“I don’t know, the box didn’t tell me,” Wil snapped back.

Dark held up his hands, his aura was still around Wil to keep him in place, “I’m not dealing with this right now, you are going home and that is the end of that.”

Another explosion rag out, closer than the last.

“See?” Wil defended. “I’m not the one blowing up the town.”

“I don’t have time for this,” Dark groaned.

“Give it up, Dark, you’re in on this,” Silver spat.

Dark’s aura snapped out and stabbed Silver, who was too close to get away in time. “I didn’t ask you. I am dealing with enough today and I don’t need your childish antics.”

Dark glared at J.J, “And  _ you _ , we will be having words after I deal with you.”

J.J signed something that made Wil giggle a bit. Dark glared at him. The sentence had actually been,  _ “Over your dead body” _ . But due to a lack of anyone translating, Dark assumed it was more vulgar than it actually was.

“So am I in trouble?” Wil asked

Dark glared at him, “What do you think?”

“No?” Wil smiled as he wasn’t about to be shaken like a ragdoll.

“Try again,” Dark warned, tapping his arm angrily.

“Alright, I understand you’re angry but I found you something that might make you feel better,” Wilford bargained. “If you’ll give me one moment, I can show you.”

“No, I’ve had enough of your games,” Dark spat.

Silver, who had been too busy fighting the two to really stop to think about the villains’ personal lives, realized, “Wait are you two dating?”

J.J and Logan just stared at Silver.

“Isn’t he one of your rogues?” Logan asked.

“Yeah really,” Roman laughed, “these two are obviously as gay as the month of June.”

“As much as I like me some men, I’m actually pan—”

Dark shot out some of his aura towards Roman, J.J frantically pulling out his watch but Jackie was already pulling him to safety.

“Will no one leave me alone for five seconds? If I wanted my personal affairs invaded, I would have continued to keep talking to that insufferable power switch.” Dark snarled.

“Well if I knew how to solve that, I would,” Wil said.

“Wil, you are lucky you can’t die, or I would have painted the wall with your entrails  _ YEARS _ ago!” Dark roared.

“I was just answering your question,” Wil pouted.

Dark’s eye twitched, but before he could say something Anti appeared next to Dark.

“Hey ‘coon eyes,” Anti smiled, ignoring Dark stabbing him through the heart with his aura. The Entity promptly let go of Wil to glare at Anti. “Yeh find Electro Nerd yet?”

Dark just looked a mix of tired and furious.

Silver looked around to notice that Logic was gone, wherever he was, J.J shook his head at Silver, tapping his finger to his mouth. The black and white colored hero nodded, watching Dark whose aura was churning angrily.

Anti stopped when the glitch demon saw Wilford, looking between him and Dark. He slowly started smiling.

“What?” Dark growled at Anti.

The standoff was momentarily distracted when Marvin was forcing Remus into the ground next to Jackie with inhuman speed and force. Fortunately neither of them were exactly human anymore so they still had usable bones. Both of them were cursing at each other, their clothing singed and burned.

Then Remus noticed Wil, winking and saying, “Hey hot stuff, having fun?”

“Are you kidding me?” Dark muttered angrily.

“Well, I’m a bit busy at the moment but maybe some other time,” Wil smiled encouragingly.

Dark rolled his eyes, opening up a portal and pushing Wil through it, closing it up as quickly as he could, “Stay in there until I get back.”

“Yeh know, yer supposed ta take yer boyfriend outta the closet,” Anti commented with a huge smile.

“You can’t just hijoke me like that,” Remus shouted at him, a giant snake quickly snapping and forcefully dragged Remus towards him, Virgil hiding behind Janus, the deceitful Side was controlling a massive two headed albino python.

“There you are,” Janus spat. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

“Oh, Dee, you’ve been missing all the fun,” Remus smiled as the Virgil was starting to tie Remus quickly to the back of the large serpent with yards and yards of spider silk to make sure he couldn’t run off and cause more trouble.

“Come on rat boy, stop squirming,” Virgil spat.

“Only if you make me,” the Duke raised his eyebrows suggestively.

“Ugh,” Virgil groaned and slapped a mass of spider silk over his mouth. “Shut up for five seconds, will you.”

Remus looked elated, mumbling something that Virgil couldn’t understand but still looked upset. Deceit quickly taking them away, throwing up barriers so that he could put as much distance between him and Marvin as possible.

Dark took the distraction as an opportunity to slip away, going back to his warehouses to check on them, Anti glaring after him before counting the amount of heroes and dissolving into green and black pixels.

Jackie had to calm Marvin down from chasing after the three Dark Sides with single-minded anger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remus is a shameless flirt. Wilford is a shameless flirt.


	4. Organization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the dust settles, friends are made and power is transferred.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for coming to another segment of “Roman and Marvin would make great friends”.

It took hours before the town, which was now big enough to be a metropolis with the new additions to, was calmed enough for people to regain some semblance of order.

Within the next few weeks gangs and mafia syndicates would fall, some to infighting, others to the larger crime groups in the new city, like Dark’s.

The group of superheroes were crammed into Mark, Daniel, Wade, and Bob’s apartment. Mostly because the Sides still couldn’t find where their apartment had wound up, and Jack didn’t want Anti eavesdropping on the conversation.

Logan adjusted his visor, already taking notes. “Well, seeing as Gainesville is currently stuck in?”

“Egoton,” Silver answered confidently.

“Athlone,” Jackieboy Man corrected.

“We’re in fookin’ Brighton,” Bro Average gestured to the city right outside the window.

“In any case,” Logan cleared his throat. “Our various rogues have joined forces. Even if it isn’t in the way we expected them to. For now, until our cities return to their natural position on the globe, we should join forces.”

Marvin was sitting on the couch with Roman, Marvin was just filing his nails as Roman was trying to smooth out some of the chips in his nails with angry grumbling. “Far as I’m concerned,” Marvin commented as Roman frowned at the magician’s perfect-looking nails, “if Jay says yer on the level, nothing I can do ‘bout it.”

J.J was taking a nap in a chair, leaning against Marvin’s side of the couch. His mustache was twitching in his sleep.

“How do you keep them so pristine?” Roman commented with a jealous huff.

“There’s a spell fer that,” Marvin goaded with a very cat-like grin. “If yeh can manage it.”

“Of course I can,” Roman scoffed with a huge smile, scooting closer to the magician, who was already conjuring up a spell book seemingly from thin air.

“I didn’t think it was possible for you to be even more impossible to deal with,” Logic scolded.

“Come on, Lo,” Patton smiled. “It’s always good to make new friends.”

“Yeah, Lo,” Marvin smiled, thumbing through his spell book “We’re friends.”

Logan scowled at him.

“Is there a spell that can let me light my sword on fire?” Roman asked.

Marvin’s smile became sharper, a grin that became even more Cheshire-like when he saw Logan’s disapproving scowl. “Yeah, I got just the thin’.”

Jackieboy nudged Silver, nudging his head to the door, “Hey, can I talk with you?”

“Uh,” Mark uncrossed his arms, looking around the room. “Sure.”

“Won’t be long,” Jack promised.

Silver followed him out, just going into the hallway of the apartment, Silver looking around and seeing that it was empty before the two rushed to the roof, where seeing two masked heroes wouldn’t be immediately linked to anyone living in the building.

“So how long yeh an’ yer friends been doin’ this?” Jackie asked.

“Couple ‘a months,” Mark answered. “What about you?”

“Same,” Jackie. “So the pink an’ black ensemble, what’s the deal with them?”

“Dark’s a mob boss from Hell who has my whole city in his back pocket,” Silver explained. “Whoever he can’t bend to his will, he kills. We’ve been making some headway with him,making people less afraid of him and breaking down parts of his network but the fucker just doesn’t die, he doesn’t ever really seem to get all that tired either.”

“Reminds me ‘a Anti,” Jackie told him, “bastard just straight up possessed me one day an’ hasn’t left us alone since. Just has two modes: gets bored and kills someone, or is bothering us so he can kill someone.”

“Just ordinary chaos seems nice,” Silver commented. “Just once I’d like to not deal with Dark’s contacts and their vile day jobs.”

“Well Anti’s a piece ‘a shite too,” Jack chuckled. “Welcome ta the circus, what about the bar shop quartet-looking guy? He got another act ‘sides being mad and gun happy?”

“That’s pretty much it, he can also teleport, is impervious to bullets and can’t remember what he did last week unless Dark’s involved,” Silver warned.

“He an’ Anti are gonna be great friends,” Jackie groaned, the two of them talking on the rooftop for a bit before joining the others.

Dark finally opened a portal into the Manor, his aura happily as it returned to his familiar home. He followed Wil’s aura out to the back patio where Wil was sitting, without pants, on one of the patio chairs trying to drink a martini . . . and failing.

“You have two hands,” Dark told him sharply, “use them.”

“Darkling,” Wil smiled excitedly, summoning up a glass of scotch on the rock and holding it up. “Join me, you look like you’ve had a hard day, my sweet licorice.”

Dark’s glare became scathing, but still took the glass, “No thanks to you, my entire network was split up over several miles. Do you know the amount of people I had to get killed today thanks to you?”

“I’m sure they deserved it,” Wil smiled, waving his hand and more Scotch appeared.

Using his aura, Dark dragged another patio chair over with and angry, metallic screech. He sat down, glaring at Wil, taking a couple long sips.

“I could help you,” Wil offered openly.

Dark let out a noise in-between a huff and a scoff, “You’ve done more than enough.”

“Oh,” Wilford set his martini down. “How silly of me, I almost forgot.”

“What a shame,” Dark groaned.

With that same huge smile that Dark knew he couldn’t stay mad at, Dark set his own glass down. He patiently knit his fingers in his lap and just waited as Wil pulled out an ornate box out of thin air and Dark just stared at it, seeing the magic and aura billowing off of it, Dark could almost feel like it was trying to speak and talk but not in any normal or audible language.

Wilford held it out and Dark took it, turning it over. A smile slowly spread across his face. “Where did you find this?”

“Oh goody, you like it,” Wil clapped. “I found it at the bank.”

“Really?” Dark hummed as he pulled the top off and looked inside to see just a bottomless pit of magic. Carefully, Dark reached his aura in and he could feel . . . something, but couldn’t pull it out. So he reached in with his hand and pulled out a black pocket ledger. Dark sent the box to his safe.

Wil was oddly quiet as Dark looked through the booklet, it had his entire schedule on it, and Dark couldn’t deny the whispering it was trying to communicate to him, even if he couldn’t hear it.

“So,” Wil trailed off. “Am I still in trouble?”

Sliding the ledger into the inside pocket of his suit jacket, then he stood and grabbed his glass again. “Nonsense,” Dark smiled and kissed Wil. “You’re free to go, sweetheart, just don’t mess with the banks again. I hate the clean up.”

Wilford was beaming with happiness, standing up and flexing his suspenders, “I live to please, Darkling.”

“Do you?” Dark smiled, as he opened up a portal into his main office. “Sometimes I think you just like making me angry.”

“Well it’s hardly my fault that you’re so damn cute when your angry,” Wil defended good naturedly.

“Well,” Dark was starting to flip through the ledger, it had his whole week scheduled out, even events that he’d thought were hazy or impossible before his city had changed. “You best keep me from getting adorable then.”

“Never,” Wilford smiled and leaned down to kiss Dark, the Entity returning the kiss as the new town began to slowly reach a new normal around them.


End file.
